Excl: Zomato in talks for fresh funding from Info Edge, others

Gurgaon-based Zomato Media Pvt Ltd (formerly DC Foodiebay Online Services Pvt Ltd), which owns the popular restaurant and event-listing site Zomato, is in talks to raise fresh funding from Info Edge (India) Ltd, as well as an unnamed new investor.

The new funding round will be closed before the end of 2013, said Hitesh Oberoi, CEO and MD, Info Edge, during an earnings conference call last week.

In February this year, Info Edge, which runs the recruitment site Naukri.com and other classifieds such as matrimonial site Jeevansathi.com and real estate portal99acres.com, had invested Rs 55 crore ($10.07 million) more in Zomato. The investment was made by acquiring ordinary shares of Zomato Media, and it took Info Edge's total investment in Zomato to Rs 86.06 crore. Info Edge's holding also rose to 57.9 per cent (from 48.5 per cent), making it the majority shareholder in the company now. The post-money valuation of Zomato stood at around $55 million.

IIT-Delhi alumni and ex-Bain employees Deepinder Goyal (CEO) and Pankaj Chaddah set up Zomato in July 2008. Initially, it only catered to Delhi NCR, but later it expanded services across India as well as abroad.

Overall, Zomato generated revenues worth Rs 11.37 crore from operations in FY13, against Rs 2.04 crore in the previous year. The firm has three revenue channels—ads, event ticketing and restaurant booking. Ad revenues grew almost seven times, from Rs 1.59 crore in FY12 to Rs 10.88 crore in FY13. This represented 95.7 per cent of the total operational revenues of the firm.

In August 2013, Zomato had partnered with toptable, a restaurant booking site, for bookings in the UK. As part of the deal, toptable will be the exclusive booking partner for the company in the UK. Last month, the company also extended its catering section to Bangalore and Mumbai. The catering section was first launched in the Delhi NCR region in March this year. As of now, the Delhi NCR region features 15 caterers and Bangalore and Mumbai feature 13 and seven caterers, respectively.

The company has also been on an expansion spree this year.

January 2013: Expanded to Europe with the launch of a new section focusing on London.

March 2013: Entered Southeast Asia with the Philippines (launched a Manila section) as its first market.

April 2013: Expanded to South Africa with the launch of a new Johannesburg section.

July 2013: Entered New Zealand (Auckland and Wellington) and further expanded its presence in South Africa (Cape Town) and the UK (Manchester and Birmingham). Also came up with a Guwahati (Assam) section.

The company is planning to foray into South America by launching a new section targeted at Brazil.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)